Anxiety Slop

I learned something interesting today.

I received an e-mail from our customer at work ("the government") saying that there were some problems with the book we delivered and they wanted to meet with us to discuss it.

My first thought was that I did something wrong, and it really bummed me out for a little while. I felt that I let my team down, and that they would lose respect for me.

Pretty strange, huh?

As I took myself out of the situation (i.e., went to the shop to ponder my dilemma), I realized how ridiculous those thoughts were.

And where did they come from, anyway?

I realized that they somehow stemmed from childhood, and I need to please people. Somehow.

In this case, however, this meeting is exactly what I expected. My team did the absolute best that we could with the tools that we were given. I have been leading them properly. We just need to get a better understanding of what our customer wants.

This will be a great meeting, and I'm interested to learn how far we are away from what our customer expects from us.

I'm glad I had the presence of mind to think through my initial feelings... those thoughts seriously could have bummed me out for the rest of the day.

What did you learn today?